Mahavishnu Orchestra

Rick Laird: Musicians Over Here Sound As If They're Stuck

Interview by Max Jones, Melody Maker, 15 January 1966

LONDON — LATEST in a long line of British jazz musicians to trek to the United States is twenty-four-year-old Rick Laird, resident bassist at London's ...

John McLaughlin: Man For All Seasons

Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc and Music Echo, 15 January 1972

Meet John McLaughlin the jazz giant, man of God, New York hermit and cult leader ...

Mahavishnu Orchestra: "All My Music Becomes An Offering To God"

Interview by Rob Partridge, Record Mirror, 11 March 1972

MAHAVISHNU JOHN McLAUGHLIN talks to Rob Partridge ...

Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Mahavishnu Orchestra: Long Beach Auditorium

Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 24 March 1972

EMERSON, LAKE and Palmer, at their Wednesday night Long Beach Auditorium concert, made the tactical error of presenting Tarkus as their first long selection. ...

Albums from Carla Bley, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Matching Mole and Malo

Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 15 April 1972

Masterly musical mixture ...

Cheech & Chong, Mahavishnu Orchestra: Berkeley Community Theater, Berkeley CA

Live Review by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 20 June 1972

Two Hours of Non-Stop Music By Mahavishnu ...

The Mahavishnu Orchestra: Community Theater, Berkeley CA

Live Review by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 10 November 1972

Mahavishnu Plays More Jazz-Rock Than Raga ...

The Mahavishnu Orchestra, The Section: Civic Auditorium, Santa Monica CA

Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 13 November 1972

Mahavishnu Headlines Rock Concert ...

The Mahavishnu Orchestra: Birds Of Fire (CBS)

Review by Ed Jones, Cracker, January 1973

AROUND O-LEVEL time in 1964, I went to the Usher Hall to see the Moody Blues in concert. 'Go Now', that anthem of pleasant teenscene ...

Mahavishnu Orchestra: Birds of Fire (America Columbia — import)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 10 February 1973

McLaughlin: the inner flame leaps higher ...

Mahavishnu Orchestra: Birds Of Fire (CBS)

Review by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 17 February 1973

THE INNER Mounting Flame was a very extreme record: extremely fast, extremely dazzling, extremely lyrical, extremely passionate. If you go along with Robert Fripp's "Head ...

Allman Brothers, Edgar Winter Group, Mahavishnu Orchestra et al : Rock & Roll Nine, Hollywood FLA

Live Review by Jim Esposito, Rock, 26 February 1973

ALMOST EVERYTHING about Rock & Roll Nine was good in some ways and bad in others. Celebrated on an isolated raceway in the swampy boondocks ...

John McLaughlin: The Best of All Possible Worlds

Profile and Interview by Martin Hayman, Sounds, 10 March 1973

IT WAS IN the very first-ever issue of this paper that a long article on John McLaughlin appeared, praising him to the skies and honouring ...

Mahavishnu Orchestra: Birds Of Fire (CBS 65321, £2.29)

Review by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 17 March 1973

Mahavishnu more than one degree under ...

Mahavishnu Orchestra: Kelvin Hall, Glasgow

Live Review by Ed Jones, Cracker, June 1973

WHY DOES EVERYBODY TALK ABOUT GLAS­GOW as if it's some kind of Clockwork Orange nightmare? In Glasgow the policemen ask you to go to the ...

Mahavishnu Orchestra: Music Of The Gods

Live Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 23 June 1973

Mahavishnu Orchestra: Free Trade Hall, Manchester ...

John McLaughlin: Natural High…

Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 30 June 1973

WITH A BAND playing music as tense and demanding as the Mahavishnu Orchestra's, one might be forgiven for expecting them to be (a) nerve wracked ...

Mahavishnu Orchestra: Rainbow Theatre, London

Live Review by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 7 July 1973

A GLIMPSE INTO THE FUTURE ...

The Captain Kirk in John McLaughlin

Overview by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 7 July 1973

PART 1: IAN MacDONALD CHARTS THE RISE AND RISE OF THE COLOSSUS OF ELECTRIC GUITAR ...

John McLaughlin: Gimme Dat 11/8 Time Religion

Overview by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 14 July 1973

PART 2: IAN MacDONALD ON THE SPIRITUAL McLAUGHLIN ...

Carlos Santana and John McLaughlin: A Pair Of White Pants Will Never Let You Down

Report and Interview by Andrew Tyler, New Musical Express, 15 September 1973

THIS PIECE might easily be subtitled "How to operate with ice-cool expediency without ruffling your cosmique mantle." But that would definitely be rushing things. ...

The Mahavishnu Orchestra: Avery Fisher Hall, New York NY

Live Review by Dave Marsh, Newsday, 28 December 1973

The same mountain, again ...

On Leave From Mahavishnu, Drummer Billy Cobham Gets His Chance: Solo

Interview by David Rensin, Rolling Stone, 31 January 1974

LOS ANGELES – "I never felt my music was ever really wanted by the Mahavishnu Orchestra," complained drummer Billy Cobham. "I tried having them use ...

John McLaughlin: It Was Natural Evolution

Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 2 February 1974

NEW YORK: Although John McLaughlin's decision to disband the Mahavishnu Orchestra came as a surprise in the closing weeks of 1973, further reflections point to ...

Mahavishnu Orchestra: Cobham — it ended in total fiasco

Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 2 February 1974

LONDON: Love, peace and perfection are difficult enough to attain in society, let alone in music. ...

Rick Laird: Why Mahavishnu Is Breaking Up

Interview by Loraine Alterman, Rolling Stone, 28 February 1974

NEW YORK — Rick Laird, former bassist with the now-scattered Mahavishnu Orchestra, said it was a case of too much ego and pride that finally ...

The Mahavishnu Orchestra: Live — Between Nothingness & Eternity (CBS 69046)

Review by Mick Gold, Let It Rock, April 1974

SRI CHIMNOY must be laughing all the way to the Void. John McLaughlin cleaned up in 1973 as the guru guitarist leading his band up ...

Cancel the inquest: the festival she lives

Report by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 27 July 1974

If Buxton was beastly and Olympia just plain limp, then even the gloomiest of us have to admit that the Knebworth Festival was indeed pretty ...

Knebworth: Great music but a non-event

Report by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 27 July 1974

ROCK FESTIVALS come these days without loud trumpetings and laying-on of hands — without, in fact, the blah and hoo-hah that attended the Isle of ...

Letter from Britain: Something Might Happen

Report by Ian MacDonald, Creem, November 1974

SITUATION UNCHANGED. Still hanging on in here, waiting for something to happen. (Wait — was that a heart-grazing lobe-grinder of a new single from Mick, ...

Mahavishnu John McLaughlin

Interview by Steven Rosen, Guitar Player, February 1975

MAHAVISHNU JOHN MCLAUGHLIN has taken the guitar further in the last two years of his career than most players hope to in a lifetime. His ...

John McLaughlin: Phew! — This is a Jolly Interesting Article!

Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 1 February 1975

— And BOY! has it got a lot in it! First, there's the full gen on Miles Davis, plus all the top-secret stuff about In ...

Mahavishnu Orchestra, Jeff Beck: Avery Fisher Hall, New York NY

Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 10 May 1975

NEW YORK: The pairing of John McLaughlin and Jeff Beck proved to be a guitarist's delight at the Avery Fisher Hall on Wednesday and Thursday ...

Jeff Beck, The Mahavishnu Orchestra: Winterland San Francisco CA

Live Review by Joel Selvin, Rolling Stone, 3 July 1975

JEFF BECK seems determined to be taken seriously as a significant rock instrumentalist, stepping out from behind his British pop star facade. Not only his ...

Ike and Tina Turner, Caravan, John McLaughlin et al: Startruckin' 75

Report by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 23 August 1975

WHERE THE HELL is Lou Reed?Good question, if a trifle academic, but eminently suited for whiling away times in the coach by discussing. ...

Visions Of The Ever Changing Mahavishnu

Interview by Mick Brown, Sounds, 13 September 1975

The Mahavishnu Orchestra is now a quartet. The frequent structural alterations to the Orchestra may be bewildering to some but to John McLaughlin it's all ...

Mahavishnu Orchestra: Inner Worlds (CBS 69216)

Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 21 February 1976

THE NAKED BODY of John McLaughlin, surmounted by a beaming face, hints, on the album cover, of purity, devotion and honesty. ...

John McLaughlin: God of Fusion

Retrospective and Interview by Colin Harper, unpublished, 1996

Author’s note: I reviewed John’s Cork Jazz Festival gig circa January 1996, and then interviewed him in London shortly after that. Features based on the ...

John McLaughlin: The Heart Of Things — Live In Paris

Review by Ian MacDonald, Uncut, June 2000

EX-MAHAVISHNU whizz and legendarily virtuosic cosmo-prog funk-jazz extrapolator in cool comeback shock ...

The Brian Auger Quintet & the Rick Laird Trio: Fleeting Moments in 1964

Book Excerpt by Colin Harper, (Jawbone Books), 2014

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Rick Laird, who died on 4 July 2021, very kindly talked to me for Bathed In Lightning: John McLaughlin, the 60s and the ...